Following on from the recent WCB article about Scorers, it is time to look at the other important officials in cricket – Umpires. Where better to start than with David Bird, Chairman of the Warwickshire County Association of Cricket Officials (WCACO), an umpire and management consultant with a wealth of experience with global organisations across Europe. Although WCACO is the organisation responsible for both Scorers and Umpires, the focus of this Q&A is on umpiring. David Bird provides a strategic view of the current issues in the world of umpiring including the following:
- Scope of WCACO activities
- Recruitment of Umpires
- Education, training and development of Umpires
- The importance of broadening the base for recruitment
- Working alongside the Warwickshire Cricket Board
- Opportunities provided by the Commonwealth Games
David, can you start please by explaining the scope of WCACO’s Umpire related activities across Warwickshire?
Certainly. WCACO is responsible (together with the WCB) for the recruitment, education, appointment and development of Umpires in Warwickshire. We provide Umpires for the following types of fixtures in recreational cricket
- Warwickshire CCC and WCB County Age Group cricket
- Requests for officials from other groups, for example leagues, universities, disability cricket groups and independent schools.
Most of the appointments are made by my colleagues
- Keith Boyall, WCACO Appointments Officer, who does a great job of fulfilling all the many umpiring requests we receive, and
- David Johnson, WCACO Development Officer and Warwickshire County Cricket League Umpires Chairman.
Can you describe how most people start their journey in umpiring?
The traditional narrative is of players turning to umpiring when they are no longer able to play. This put our historical recruitment pool well into their 30s in terms of age. Traditional methods of recruitment included direct approaches, adverts in cricket related publications and league newsletters. Ian Westwood and Oliver Hannon-Dalby are good recent examples of Warwickshire CCC players who have added umpiring qualifications to their career options after playing.
We are determined now, however, to broaden our appeal and recruit from other more diverse sources, as well as retired players. Umpiring has for a long time been managing the issue of replenishing its ranks as Umpires get older. This situation has become more serious due to Covid, when many older Umpires got out of the habit of umpiring during the pandemic and didn’t come back to it afterwards, for a variety of reasons.
Picking up that point, how important is it that umpiring attracts people from all parts of the community?
It is vitally important that umpiring moves with the rest of the game. Recruiting, educating and developing people from all communities is a challenge for us. The ‘Inspiring Generations’ strategy from the ECB directs us towards a focus on recruiting more Umpires from all the communities discussed in that document - namely diverse communities, women, and those with disabilities. We also need to focus on recruiting younger people. Hampshire is a great example of a cricket county which has developed this strategy successfully and now has a large pool of young female Umpires.
There are some great examples in the professional game of young female Umpires who have been mentored proactively and are doing well. Those I would particularly mention are Anna Harris, Sarah Bartlett and Grace Banbury. They are good role models for other women (and girls) considering the move into umpiring and all of them have, of course, been encouraged by Sue Redfern’s success as an international umpire.
What are the key issues around the education and training of Umpires?
The aim is to enable every Umpire in our county “to be the best Umpire they can be at the level they would like to stand”. This recognises that not everyone aspires to be an internationally renowned Umpire. For many people, being an Umpire is a great way to work alongside friends and family in a sport they love - in every form of the game from red ball to softball cricket. It’s about helping them to do what they want to do to the best of their ability, and to enjoy it.
Underpinning all of this is the concept of independence. In every survey we undertake, participants say they like having independent Umpires. Any umpire who has a connection with a team will, unfortunately, inevitably be accused of bias. The independence becomes more cherished as you go up the leagues. Having said that, there is a great opportunity in junior cricket to get parents more involved in umpiring (and scoring) now that parents and siblings tend to stay and socialise during junior training.
Whatever the level, it’s important we don’t just drop people into difficult situations and that we give them opportunities to develop in appropriate circumstances. We need to provide opportunities for new Umpires to officiate in lower level non-confrontational environments, preferably alongside a more experienced official who can guide them.
The challenge for us is how to provide mentors for new Umpires coming through, understanding too that some might need more support than others. Everyone deserves an equally fair opportunity to develop. This leads on to the question about who is actually best placed to provide training and mentoring. If we are discussing training and mentoring young people, for example, who is going to the best person to train them? Is it me, who is old enough to be their grandparent, or someone more familiar to them and of a more approachable age?
In the West Midlands, Connor McGary is a great example of a successful young umpire and role model. At just 21 years old, Connor is an established umpire in the Birmingham & District Premier Cricket League and he received the top captain’s marks of any umpire in Divisions 1 and 2 last year. He was unlucky not to get on the National Panel. Connor has had great support, strong mentoring and lots of appropriate opportunities to take him to the next stage of development. He demonstrates that age is not a barrier. I would love to see more Connors in umpiring.
Can you tell us more about how you are working with the Warwickshire Cricket Board and other cricket organisations?
The relationship between WCACO and the WCB is an important one. On a purely technical level, the ECB’s County Partnership Agreement includes officiating, so this is one of the important factors county boards have to consider in their operations. On a more personal level, we have considerable contact with Ed McCabe and Alex Roslyn in the WCB team, for example recently about running the Young Officials course to encourage more young people into umpiring and scoring. I am also keen to work with Eaton Gordon to see how we can best recruit and train officials from parts of the community that traditionally haven’t been well represented in umpiring and scoring.
I worked recently alongside the WCB team as an independent verifier at their Guinness World Record attempt at Edgbaston for the largest cricket training session. It was great to be part of that event and to see so many women and children organising and participating in the day.
I am also involved at a national level, with parts of the ECB which are looking at the key issues going forward in officiating at all levels of the game. This work is exploring the current situation, what is required in the future, and how an officiating strategy can best be delivered. All of the issues we have discussed in this interview are part of that work.
What are your thoughts on the inclusion of women’s cricket in the upcoming Commonwealth Games and what opportunities will this provide for the umpiring community?
I am very excited about the Commonwealth Games and think it will provide great opportunities for women’s cricket and female officials. All the officials for the matches will be female, with Sue Redfern umpiring alongside Umpire colleagues from each of the other participating nations. ACO members Heather Vernon and Sue Drinkwater will be the Scorers for all the matches too. These female officials will be providing excellent role models to other women and girls considering scoring and umpiring in cricket. It’s great that we have this once in a lifetime opportunity on our doorstep to inspire young women as players and officials.
Many WCACO members will be supporting the Commonwealth Games in various ways. Some of them will be meeting and greeting at New Street Station, while others will be supporting officials directly at the matches themselves. Some WCACO members, for example, will be making sure all the match officials have what they require at Edgbaston and that the facilities are ready and secure.
Thank you, David. How would you summarise your priorities going forward?
We need to continue to think hard about the best ways to recruit and develop people. Our strategy should be around finding the right official for the right game. In the past, bodies would have automatically appointed the most senior official available, regardless of the standard of the game. So, for example, a senior official may have ended up officiating at an U14 county game, when it would have been a better learning experience for a less experienced official (and perhaps a better experience for the participants too). Junior matches are a good environment for officials in the developmental stages of their career.
Ultimately, these considerations around developing our people are a key part of the strategy to recruit, educate and develop the best officials we can for the future of the game, in Warwickshire and nationally.
David Bird is Chairman of the Warwickshire Association of Cricket Officials. He can be contacted at [email protected] Further information about the WCACO can be found on their website https://wcaco.org.uk
